The following are the notes from Pastor Bryan’s “state of the church” address given Sunday, 9/13, outlining Epiphany’s plans for the fall. If you missed the congregational meeting on Sunday, or if the rain drowned out something and you missed a portion of the presentation, feel free to check in with the notes below:
Hello Epiphany – it is good to be here with you today. I hope you are enjoying your picnic brunch and I hope you’re enjoying a time to greet and be with each other in this season of separation. I called for us to have a congregational meeting today so that I could share with you a number of updates on the work happening behind the scenes and lay out the plans for this fall.
So let me begin with a look back. We started our year with a theme – “preaching the gospel to ourselves,” with a new Christian Ed program and a number of new faces in the church. You may not have known this, but behind the scenes, the vestry and I had been planning Epiphany’s first weekend retreat, exploring curricula and scouting out locations for weekend getaways. Our year turned south the week of March 15 – that was the last time we had in-person gatherings. After the nationwide shutdown, we had 12 weeks of online services together, an outdoor Easter service transmitted over radio, a state mandated disconnection that kept us all apart for nearly three months. In June, we transferred from online church to worshiping together in the sanctuary of Calvary Methodist. We have not been able to sing together, we have not been able to engage in hospitality and Christian Ed as we have been, we have not been able to take communion in the same way. But we are together none-the-less, and the two hallmarks of what the church does – the proclamation of God’s Word and the administration of Sacraments – has continued until this day. We are a long way from our last “traditional” gathering at the Moriah Chapel on March 15, and it has been quite a year that has required us, from time to time, to preaching the gospel to our isolated selves when we couldn’t hear it from our friends, our families, or even our pastors.
As a community and as a body, we are remarkably well despite the circumstances! Well may be a strong word – resilient may be the better word, pushing forward in ministry despite the circumstances. Three Sundays after we returned to meeting in person, we welcomed Hayden Sleasman into the church through the sacrament of Baptism. Epiphany will have had four baptisms within one calendar year, which is a remarkable gift, and if you haven’t been baptized, we’ve got about a month to make it 5 or 6, just come see me. Members of Epiphany have continued to give to the work of the church, some via paypal online and some sending checks through the mail. We completed a handicap ramp service project in late July. Although our service attendance has dropped, that is not a reflection of dissatisfaction with the church. Some of us are still waiting for COVID to fully pass before returning to worship, and many of us took this summer to travel and see family that we couldn’t have been with in the Spring.
I, for one, am grateful. The latest numbers I heard were that 40% of churches in America have yet to return to in-person services – 4 out of 10 churches still have their doors closed. Many churches have seen significant dips in giving, to the tune of 20% or 30%. In some of the larger churches in our diocese, my peers in ministry, the 30-something clergy with young children who often serve as assistants or youth directors – they have been laid off, looking for work in a season when work is hard to come by. Not only have we been able to meet together in person, we’ve been able to pay the pastor and the organist their wages, and we’ve been able to accomplish mission projects in the midst of a global catastrophe that, thankfully, hasn’t ruined life for us locally. We could still be meeting online right now. We could still be on our Sunday couches with coffee in one hand and a smartphone playing a podcast in the other. And as fun as that may seem, we just like each other too much for a digital church to satisfy our physical and spiritual communion. I joked with someone in the church recently that our current arrangement at Calvary, without singing, without coffee hour, is “the best of the bad solutions.” It may not get better than this for some time, but let us be grateful that it is not worse.
I am also grateful for your cooperation regarding our sanitation practices. Our congregation is of many minds on COVID matters. We do not agree on the best political or public health courses of action. We do not agree on the severity of the outbreak. But I have asked all members of Epiphany to observe a number of basic precautions, including mask wearing, spaced pews, and sanitation, and you all have agreed to observe those practices. Such action together is a sign that we at Epiphany value unity and community, and I am grateful for that.
So! Let’s talk about the fall to come. What are some of the things you can expect for this fall as we continue to navigate this corona season? There are three variables at play for our fall, three variables that we can plan for. Let me talk about these three variables and then share with you the plans to come. I want to talk about fellowship, I want to talk about weather, I want to talk about facilities.
First, a word about fellowship. The number 1 struggle that parishioners have shared with me over the past few months has been that our current Sunday Service pattern has made significant fellowship difficult if not impossible. Part of what makes Epiphany so great is its people, and I think that the Sunday Service without the community aspect has made us miss our pre-pandemic life even more. And so one of my top priorities this fall is navigating the disconnection that many of us feel in the church from the people we love. This is the first priority – establishing fellowship again.
Second, a word about weather. We are, believe it or not, approaching a time when the weather will turn cold, and we will be unable to meet outside. Gathering outside has proven to be the safest and most effective way to gather without spreading the virus. We are facing a timeline of sorts- when will the weather prevent us from meeting together safely outside. We’ve been extremely blessed so far – the beautiful summer days have outnumbered the bad days by 6 to 1 in my esteem. But we cannot expect that to continue into late October and November and December.
Related to the weather – there is a public health consensus that we should be weary of the cold months to come. The combination of the COVID pandemic and the coming flu season could pose a serious risk to our health and fellowship. And so it behooves us to take advantage of the months of September and October and early November for the purpose of faithful fellowship.
Third, a word about facilities. I had a meeting two weeks back with the leadership at Bethlen, with our Jr. Warden, Rich Flickinger. In our meeting, Molly Styles, our contact with Bethlen, cleared up a few rumors going around town, and I thought I would share her updates with you. Bethlen’s financial position, though tenuous last winter, has returned to stability and profitability. We have no reason to think that any of their changes in leadership structure will negatively impact our partnership with them. We also have every reason at this point to think that, when the pandemic subsides and social distancing requirements aren’t in effect, we will return to the Moriah Chapel for services, and we communicated that to Bethlen in our meeting. As a sign of good faith, the Bethlen leadership has even given us a waiver on our monthly “rent” payments that we have given them for the use of that space, and have said we can continue paying them when we return to worship on their campus. Even across “social distance,” even in our absence, our partnership with Bethlen continues to be a stable and steadfast blessing.
We are also grateful to have the building at Calvary for Sunday worship, and the vestry has arranged to continue meeting there until January if needed. At our last gathering in June, some questions were raised about the use of the The Barn, and after following up on that lead over the summer, it was clear to the vestry that The Barn was not an available option. Sunday mornings at The Barn are under contract with their catering and events partner, and that business uses The Barn on Sunday mornings. The Calvary space is not optimal – the stairs and stair lift aren’t as accessible as I would like, the communion table is a little funky, and we are limited in our available use times. But you know, it’s very nice to have a small nursery in the back of the sanctuary, I don’t have to get my vestments on in the narthex when people are coming in the front door, and it’s nice to have bright stained glass and tall vaulted ceilings for a change. So that is a word about facilities – we are ready to return to Bethlen when the time comes, and until then, we are stable and maintaining our life together at Calvary.
Fellowship, weather, and facilities – those are the three big variables at play in our fall plans. So the question as I see it is this: how do we preach the gospel to ourselves this fall when we are desperate for fellowship and community, limited in our use of facilities, dependent on comfortable outdoor weather for safe gathering?
First – between September and October, we are going to be as social as we can outside. We have one pizza night scheduled for this Thursday, September 17 at the Ligonier Country Club’s outdoor pavilion. My intention is to organize a few more pizza nights at outdoor friendly locations over the coming weeks. We may need to bring sweaters, but the fellowship will be worth it. We will also be organizing a landscaping party to clean up the Moriah Chapel hill – stay tuned for that in the coming weeks. Let us strike while the weather is good and get as much mission and fun in as we can before the winter arrives.
Second – I am making it my mission to join every family of the church in person for a one-on-one time of check-ins and prayer. In fact, I’ve started this mission already, enjoying a Chick Fil A lunch with our own Vickie Mull last week. My hope and my intent is to come and visit YOU – on your front porch, on your back porch, in your garage, whatever makes the most sense. Maybe we split a bottle of wine, maybe we grill out, maybe we just sip a lemonade and enjoy the last days of warm weather, maybe we just wear masks and talk. Frankly, it doesn’t matter to me. I will drive to Greensburg. I will drive to Mount Pleasant. I will drive to Johnstown. I will drive to Coal Center. Of course you may decline a visit, but I am very interested in hearing how this pandemic season has impacted your life in the place you’ve spent most of your time the past six months. We’ll say some prayers, we’ll catch up, and I will even say blessings on your house and consecrate the threshold of your home. In your bulletin this week is a handout titled “Pastoral Visit” – it’s a half-page paper with some questions on it. Fill it out and let me know the best times and circumstances for a visit, and I will begin to put dates on the calendar.
Third – Stay tuned for the return of Christian Ed. Since our service is at 9:00 a.m., it makes all the sense in the world that we should bring back a 10:30 a.m. gathering and resume the discipleship work that is necessary for our life together. One of the great frustrations I had in March was that the Sunday we were going to turn a corner in our Kerygma course and see how a well established Biblical pattern changes — that was the Sunday we went remote for services. And so I have modified our Kerygma course to not be a carbon copy of what we studied last winter, and it will be returning for our congregational life very soon. Perhaps it is good we have 9:00 a.m. worship – that means everyone can make Sunday School after the service!
Fourth – We are going to modify a bit of our Anglican business. It has been our tradition since I came to Epiphany to have our annual meetings in November. Given our facilities constraints, it makes sense that we should have our annual meeting in conjunction with an outdoor worship service in a season with fairer weather. This is why the vestry has already formed a nominating committee. Our intent is to have vestry elections and an official annual meeting in the month of October, when we can gather outside. That way, we are not beholden to a stressful, poorly attended, disorganized annual meeting in November. Stay tuned for an official date and time on this matter.
We are also going to organize a group order for our denomination’s new prayer books that came out in 2019. Many of us have prayer books for our own personal use, and I happen to think that this 2019 prayer book is a real gift to the church. I have found the Book of Common Prayer to be a deep and rich personal devotional tool – it helps me preach the gospel to myself. This edition of the prayerbook is theologically rich, supremely useful, and a meaningful way to connect with God. I also think the church would benefit from having a collection of updated prayer books as well. And so you’ll soon have the chance to order a copy of the 2019 prayer book for yourself and a copy for the church as well.
Fifth – We are already looking ahead to the holidays. I wanted to let you know now that, once we do hit the November timeframe and lose our fair weather, we will still have ministry on our mind. I want to confirm and announce that our annual partnership with the Salvation Army, the Angel Tree ministry, will be happening this year. Epiphany will need volunteers to help sort and collate the community’s toy donations, and it is reasonable for us to expect that this year may require more work to help out more families than we saw in 2019, so we may need more hands on help this year.
Alongside our annual Christmas Eve service, this year, I am hoping to plan with your help a unique outreach ministry that may serve as a balm to our community in a difficult season. Many churches across the U.S. have been observing a service called a Blue Christmas service, or a Longest Night service. These services are designed to offer refuge and shelter from the forced cheerfulness of the holiday season – a space for people to appreciate The Christian Christmas who aren’t so feeling so holly-jolly. A Longest Night service is a ministry for those who lost loved ones in the previous year, a ministry to those who are struggling with life’s hardest questions, a ministry for those who need a place to grieve. It’s a service that leans less on the sentimental “sweet baby Jesus” kind of service, and more on the “O Come O Come Emmanuel”. The Stahlstown Methodist churches are also planning a Blue Christmas service, and so we may be sharing some of the outreach material with them as we get closer to the holiday. But for now, keep a note in the back of your mind that this outreach opportunity may be applicable to someone you love and care for.
As far as the rest of the holiday season — who knows! Maybe we’ll be back in the Moriah Chapel, maybe we’ll be back on our podcast format. Maybe we’ll be singing Christmas Carols in the parking lot of the Giant Eagle through a service transmitted through the AM radio. If the virus has taught us anything, it’s that “we do not know what tomorrow will bring.”
So, with that, I give you our tentative plans for the fall. Pizza Nights. Prayer Books. Christian Ed. Pastoral Visits. Landscaping. Missions. Toys. Christmas. We will continue to preach The Gospel to ourselves, in preparation for whatever God has next for us in 2021.